Cyrus Farivar

Macworld: We here at Macworld have decided to experiment with the Podcast format. So weÕve taken a page from the magazine and inaugurated the Geek Factor podcast, covering tech topics on an irregular basis. Former Macworld intern Cyrus Farivar is the host of this Podcast. In this second 29-minute installment, the topic of choice is AppleÕs Newton PDA, which still has a legion of followers even seven years after it was discontinued. Cyrus interviews Grant Hutchinson, a Newton enthusiast who…

FedEx Package from Shanghai to New York: May 11 2005 8:35 pm – Left Origin – Shanghai 8:53 pm – Pickup status – Shanghai May 12 2005 1:57 pm – Arrived at Sort Facility – Anchorage 4:17 pm – Left Sort Facility – Anchorage 8:40 pm – Arrived at FedEx Ramp – Shanghai 9:12 pm – Left FedEx Ramp – Shanghai

AP : TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Lawmakers authorized Internet voting Thursday for Tallinn’s local elections in October as the first step toward a nationwide system. Voters will need an electronic ID card, an ID-card reader and Internet access. There are plans to use the system also in the next parliamentary elections in 2007. The approved bill was initiated by the Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee. The national electoral committee has conducted trials since early this year. Dubbed E-Stonia by some, Estonia…

NYT Circuits, 5/12/05 : What do the pope and Paris Hilton have in common? They’re both podcasters – and you can be one too. Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, podcasts are essentially do-it-yourself recorded radio programs posted online. Anyone can download them free, and, using special software, listeners can subscribe to favorite shows and even have them automatically downloaded to a portable digital music player. Despite what the name suggests, podcasts can be played not just on iPods…

Cameron Diaz, talking to USA Today, about her new show: Trippin’ They had a similar experience with Kid Rock, who joined Diaz on the journey to Costa Rica. Rock, Diaz says, initially scoffed at their talk about the importance of clean waterways. “He was like, ‘I don’t need any water.’ We were like, ‘You need water to make beer!’ He was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ “ (Thanks to last week’s Daily Show for my weekly dose of celebrity ridicule.)

Finally done! Got about three hours of sleep last night from 3 am – 6 am and finished the book proposal and sample chapter. Went to a party on the roof of a classmate’s apartment on 94th/Broadway with a great view of the Hudson. We’ll see where this leads. So this should be it for me and school. You can start calling me “Master Farivar” starting next Wednesday. So what’s next for me? Well, I’m back in Oakland on May…

I’ll be back home again, on California soil. Off to CT tonight, and to Montreal for the weekend. Have a good weekend.

For those of you who knew me back in 2001, then you’ll know that I went on a trip to Cuba with my Freshman Seminar at UC Berkeley. We got a chance to spend a week in Havana, acting as researchers (us lowly undergrads at the time) for the grad students. I was the researcher for this piece, called Cyber Libre: Cubans Log On Behind CastroÕs Back. There was talk that these would be put into a book, and it’s…

Wired News: 02:00 AM May. 05, 2005 PT by Cyrus Farivar Scientists are helping blind people see again, one pixel at a time. If all goes well, an artificial retina could be commercially available within three years. Artificial retinas have been successfully implanted in six patients, allowing them to see light and detect motion, researchers announced at the 2005 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Developed by researchers from the University…

I like the idea of extending The Daily Show to a full hour. But I don’t like the idea of moving Stephen Colbert off The Daily Show. NYT: Stephen Colbert, who plays a phony correspondent on the fake-news program “The Daily Show,” is getting a real promotion. Comedy Central said yesterday that it was giving Mr. Colbert his own show: a half-hour that is expected to follow “The Daily Show” on weeknights and will lampoon those cable-news shows that are…